Baseball: Red Sox will have decision to make on John Lackey

For all of the brave talk about "there is lots of time left," the reality of 2014 is that the Red Sox are not very good and have few prospects of getting very good.

They can move forward either on the 1-in-10 chance that the miraculous happens and they turn things around, or the 9-in-10 chance that the rest of 2014 is about 2015 and beyond.

Looking at things that way, they have to figure out what to do with John Lackey.

Lackey has a unique contract that, because he missed a year due to Tommy John surgery, has him playing for $500,000 next year. While Lackey is 35, his elbow is 25 thanks to the operation, so he may have a few more good years left.

He signed the deal that will pay him $500,000 in 2009. There was no deception involved And, yes, he did get more than $15 million for not pitching one inning in 2012. So, fair is fair. He should just take the $500,000 and pitch next year.

In the real world, yes. Baseball ceased being the real world in 1976 when an arbitrator ruled that players no longer signed for life when put their name on their first pro contract. They were given more than their freedom. They were given leverage, which is what Lackey has and the Red Sox do not.

His contract does not say he has to pitch for Boston next year. It says that if he chooses to pitch, it can only be for the Red Sox unless they agree otherwise, which is unlikely. Lackey could do a Ryan Dempster — not play at all and go on the restricted list.

The way Lackey has pitched this year, if he does that, there will be a long line of teams waiting for him in 2016.

With the return of Jon Lester not certain for 2015 given his pending free agency, it makes sense for the Red Sox to come to some sort of financial understanding with Lackey, and no doubt they will try. If he gets $5 million, he is still a bargain.

Lackey does not need any more money. The Red Sox have plenty of it. It should not be that difficult for the two sides to figure it out. Technically, Lackey should have to pitch next year for $500,000 and perform as well as he can. As the Sox look towards the future, they should see about getting this settled as soon as they can.

Because, all they have is money. Lackey has something greater than that — leverage.

Baseball Jeopardy

Answers.

1. The last player to hit a ball into the screen that used to be where the Monster seats are now at Fenway Park.

2. This ballpark has the second-highest left field fence in the American League.

3. He has hit the most career home runs by a player drafted and signed by the Red Sox.

Questions below.

Bradley's worth proven?

There is no precise guideline as to when it is time to pull the plug on a prospect, but Jackie Bradley Jr. is up to more than 300 at-bats in the major leagues and is hitting .201. That is the worst career average by a Sox outfielder with at least 300 at-bats. Four of the five Boston position players with lower averages that deep into their careers are catchers — Sam Agnew, Ed Connolly, Marc Sullivan and Charlie Armbruster — and the other was backup third baseman Rip Russell (1946-47) at .199. … This is a dangerous time of the year for the Blue Jays. Toronto has been in first place in the AL East every day since they won at Fenway Park, 6-4, on May 21. Their lead reached six games on June 11 but is down to 1½. Last year, the Jays' had an 11-game winning streak that ended on June 23, then they went 7-19 before winning two games in a row again. Perhaps their remarkable comeback victory on Friday night, when they beat the Reds after falling behind, 8-0, will get them back on track. … There is still some fallout from David Ortiz's unseemly tantrum at Fenway Park on Wednesday when he thought he was cheated out of a hit by an official scoring decision. The incident made Ortiz seem like a bully, really. Here's a major league baseball player making about $96,000 a game trying to publicly embarrass an official scorer who gets $160 a game, plus a free meal worth $12. Big Papi, indeed. … Raise your hand if you're tired of watching A.J. Pierzynski do a hard right turn for the Red Sox dugout partway down the first base line when he grounds out, which happens a lot. … Dustin Pedroia still has just one home run at Fenway Park this season and only two going back to July 31, but it would be interesting to find out — and "almosts" are one stat not yet included in the box score — how many homers he has missed by less than a foot. There was one off the top of the Green Monster during the last homestand, and Pedroia has had at least five or six that were foul by inches down the left field line both this season and in last fall's World Series. … So, Wednesday, the Red Sox hit more home runs than singles in beating the Twins, 2-1, on Ortiz's and Mike Napoli's homers. That can't happen very often, right? Well, actually, it is not that unusual. Last year it happened at Fenway on Sept. 4 in Boston's 20-4 victory over the Tigers. The Sox had 7 singles, 4 doubles, no triples and 8 home runs.

Catching up with ...

Reliever David Aardsma has been dominant for the Cardinals' Triple-A affiliate in Memphis. He is 2-0 with 11 saves and an 0.91 ERA; Buddy Bailey, one of Jimy Williams' bench coaches, is managing the Cubs' Double-A farm team in Tennessee; catcher Josh Bard is a pro scout for the Dodgers.

Affable right-hander John Burkett is a professional bowler with the PBA Tour; former third base coach and spring training manager in 2002 Mike Cubbage is a special assignment scout for the Rays; and Sun-Woo Kim is pitching in his native Korea for the LG Twins.

Local pitchers thriving

Among local players through Friday night, Worcester's Tim Collins has extended his scoreless streak to 6 innings with the Kansas City Royals; lefty reliever Jim Fuller (Marlboro) has worked 10 straight scoreless innings at Double-A New Britain (Twins) and his ERA is down to 0.75; teammate Ryan O'Rourke (Worcester) is holding left-handed batters to an .061 average; Chris Colabello (Milford, Assumption) homered on Friday night for the Twins' Rochester affiliate and is 11 for 33 (.333) in his last 10 games.

Bryan LaHair (Worcester) had a home run in a 2-for-4 night on Thursday for Double-A Akron (Indians) but is in a 2-for-18 skid overall; Gardner's Oliver Drake has not allowed a run in 7 innings this month for the Orioles' Double-A team in Bowie; Shrewsbury's Jonathan Massad had a tough outing in Burlington, Vt. on Friday night. In his third relief appearance of the season Massad was the losing pitcher for the A's Lake Monsters affiliate in the NY-Penn League. He surrendered six runs in the 10th in Vermont's 9-7 loss to Connecticut.

Jeopardy Questions

1. Who is Jason Varitek? The Red Sox catcher hit a solo home run into the left field screen on Sept. 29, 2002, the last game the Red Sox played at Fenway before the monster seats were constructed.

2. What is Progressive Field? The Indians' home ballpark has a left field fence that looks high, but at 19 feet it's slightly more than half as tall as Fenway's Green Monster at 37 feet.

3. Who is Jeff Bagwell? Bagwell never played for Boston, but he was taken by the Sox in the fourth round of the 1989 draft and hit 449 home runs for the Astros.